Books and Documents
SURVIVAL: Individual and Collective by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez
Chapter 10: Islam A Challenge to Religion
By Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez
The verse, cited above, enshrines a great truth. To grasp it fully, we must consider it in all its aspects. Death is a natural phenomenon. It is a physical change which overtakes the human body. The body had its origin in the union of parental life cells. For a number of years it continued to develop through the processes of maturation and exercise. After reaching its peak, it begins to decline and decay. The process of disintegration culminates in death. The crucial question is whether there is anything in man which survives the dissolution of the body. The answer is that the self which grow and developed in the matrix of the body may survive it and may, on the break-up of the body, launch out on a fresh career. We, by no means, suggest that his is true of all selves. We admit that some philosophers of repute have held the view that the self is its nature imperishable. McTaggart, to mention only one, has developed this view in his writings and has defended it with arguments that are regarded as worthy of attention in philosophical circles. We do not subscribe to this view because it does not harmonise with the Quranic view of the destiny of the human self. In taking up this attitude to McTaggart's position, we have, also been influenced by two rational considerations. Firstly, this view entails belief in the pre-existence of the self, for which there is not a shred of evidence: secondly, with the acceptance of this view, emphasis shifts from what the self does to what it is. Moral activity ceases to be of vital importance to the fate of the self.
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3:15 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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